Category: iOS
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In my last post I discussed how I was able to get my Liftmaster garage door opener working with HomeKit, even though it wasn’t officially HomeKit compatible. I used a HomeKit bridge called Homebridge, running on my Mac, to accomplish this (Linux would work, too). Setting up Homebridge and the first plugin (Liftmaster) was the hard part. From there, getting the Wemo plugin set up and installed was easy.

If you have a MyQ-enabled garage door opener, and you want to hook your door into HomeKit, take a look at Homebridge. Homebridge is a NodeJS server that runs on your Mac, or on a Linux machine such as a Raspberry Pi. Homebridge acts as a HomeKit bridge and allows you to use certain non-HomeKit devices with HomeKit. That might sound like a mouthful, and it certainly isn’t trivial to set up, but it isn’t as difficult as it might seem.

Mail apps on iOS have come a long way over the past couple of years. I still don’t have a single mail app on iOS that serves my needs, though. One reason is the lack of support in most apps for saving email messages in eml format. If you save a message in eml format to an app like DEVONthink, the link back to the original message is preserved.

One such app in my arsenal is AltaMail, which I use solely for its ability to save messages in eml format. While falling short in the looks department, AltaMail is very powerful, offering filters, templates, email rules, and other features. I don’t really use any of that, though. I use AltaMail solely for its ability to save mail messages in eml format.

Update: In the forum post mentioned below, the developer has announced that Apple has approved Scrivener for iOS and the release date is Wednesday, July 20.

I’ve been writing quite a bit about the upcoming release of Scrivener for iOS. Soon, I should be able to write about the actual app, as the developer just submitted it for review to the App Store.

The developer announced this in a forum post. Scroll toward the bottom of the post to see the news. Even if it is quickly approved, the developer announced the app won’t go on sale until the end of next week, as the company needs to get some other loose ends tied up.

Literature and Latte, the developer behind Scrivener, has announced that the iOS version of the popular writing app will be released next month. In the blog post, the company has also teased a short video. It looks like we’re almost there, at last. Pricing has also been announced.

Scrivener will work on any device running iOS 9.0 or above. You could tap out a whole novel on your iPhone, or spread out on an iPad Pro. It will cost $19.99, and will be coming to an iPad or iPhone near you in late July (App Store review times depending).

Scrivener is a fantastic writing tool. If you’re a lawyer, it’s even great for writing briefs. Scrievener currently lacks an iOS app, but that should change soon. In April, Scrivener for iOS entered closed beta. Now, it sounds like the release is getting even closer.

Scrivener for iOS has been in closed beta with around 75 people for the past month. We’re now looking to expand the beta group, so are throwing open the doors to volunteers. If you’re interested in helping test Scrivener for iOS, read on!
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We only have a limited number of beta testing spots available, and right now we’re looking to add between 200 and 250 new people to the pool.
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The beta so far has been going great, with beta testers using Scrivener for iOS every day without any real problems.

I can’t wait to see this, but I’m not going to apply for the beta test – they need people to truly contribute to find bugs, etc., and I’d worry I’d just want an early peek at the app.

The developers of DEVONthink have just issued an update on the status of the DEVONthink to Go 2 beta. The second sync mode reminds me slightly of Dropbox Project Infinite, with its on demand sync. Great for space-constrained devices.

The next betas are going to see the addition of a second sync mode. It downloads only the metadata at first and the actual documents on demand or automatically when needed. This will make it possible to take out even larger databases and leave the lion’s share of the data up to Dropbox or your WebDAV service.

A few days ago, I wrote about my first attempt at using the new and improved automation features in OmniFocus for iOS. In that attempt, I used Editorial to create a Taskpaper-formatted template that prompted me for dates. Those dates would carry over as due dates in an OmniFocus project. I’ve since tweaked that template, so that it flags the tasks, and automatically calculates defer dates based on the due dates.

UPDATE (2016-05-01): I’ve updated this template to calculate defer dates, add flags to tasks, and make the project parallel instead of sequential. You can find the updated template to download, along with an explanation, in this post.

The Omni Group released a new version of OmniFocus for iOS yesterday. That version dramatically improved automation in OmniFocus for iOS, adding support for two-way communication with other iOS apps. This was irresistible for me, so I dove in, albeit at a very basic level.

Every year, Federico Viticci of MacStories publishes a wish list for the next version of iOS. He’s done it again this year, and I’d love it if even half of his wishes come true. I don’t use iOS to near the extent that Federico does, so my personal wish list contains just two items, including one that I didn’t find on Federico’s list:

1) A share sheet for the Mail app. This is perhaps my biggest source of annoyance on iOS, and the reason why I constantly evaluate third party mail clients. All I want is an easy way to get content directly from the Mail app into OmniFocus and other apps. I can use Omni’s Mail Drop service for this, but with Mail Drop, I need to later go in and add projects and contexts to my tasks. Omni is also adding automation support to OmniFocus 2.14, which could make use of the share sheet even more helpful.

2) A search box in the Slide Over app picker. As more apps support split screen multitasking, the shortcomings of the Slide Over app picker become more glaring. Having to scroll, and scroll,and scroll, and scroll, and (you get the idea) just to find an app is a chore. Federico has mocked up very a great fix, with a tighter clustering of apps, the ability to search, and the ability to pin favorite apps. All three would be great, but I’d be happy with just the ability to search apps.

To see this mock up, and many others, hit the link below. I hope some influential people at Apple read MacStories.